For those who have just joined us, our ministry is planning to build an integrated centre for the needy in Thailand. And the ideal plan was to have the centre to not only be a home for street children, but also a training centre, a safe shelter for victims, a church and a community centre for everyone- A place where the broken can come to seek help.
That's our dream. But finding that land is a nightmare. We have searched for a land for the last 6 months, combing though almost every corner of the village. But there was none suitable. The available land is either too small or too expensive. When we said its expensive its SHOCKINGLY expensive. There are pieces of land which are even more expensive then downtown bangkok !
Rich merchants are pushing up land prices to unsustainable levels and the poor people are selling their lands. In the process, the rich-poor divide becomes wider.
For us, we're very concerned that if we delay further, we may not even have a piece of land left. And thats what we have been doing for the last 6 months, searching for a piece of land to build this centre. And it has been a discouraging 6 months.
Finally last week, we had a breakthrough. A parcel of land was floated in the market. The land was sizable, there was water & electricity cables nearby, small road access and the price was right!
The only drawback, it was not as central as we hoped our land would be. So after much discussion, we decided to take up this offer while we continue to search for a better piece of land that is more centralised.
In the event that no better land comes up, at least we have something to fall back on.
As much as I can, I would love the integrated centre to be in a more centralised location where the bulk of the 14,000 people are located, instead of staying in a suburb community of 2,000.
But whatever it is, we're leaving the opening of doors to God.
Here is a picture of the standby land.
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